EEEEEEK!

How do you know they don't purr? Have you gotten close enough to find out for sure?? ;o)

LOL mgh, I'm appointing you to do the arachnoid purring research, and if Google doesn't turn up anything, I think a personal listening test is in order >8) by you, of course. My hearing isn't what it should be LOL.

What? What did you say? I can't hear you. >:o}

One time someone got my mother high on some product and she told me stories about living in Corpus Christie and had to put jars of water on the bed legs to keep the spiders, cockroaches etc out of the bed. Many other stuff too. But when she got up in the morning and said "See I told you it wouldn't affect me." Then we told her what she opened up to her children last night. Her only comment was "Oh my!"

Wow, tiffanya. I thought I was a mean older sister. Your sister wins the prize.
sofer, let's not even go there with the other creepy crawlies.

Sofer: What product??

I've heard of growling spiders.... is that close to purring?

I think so. Spiders are a lot like whales. If we swam in the water we would be afraid of them too. But Spiders are intellegent. Each and every one of them are architects, lovers, mothers, warm fuzzies childhood friends, and the best eater of the enemies of the garden. Too bad they aren't purple, Right Elmo!

ROFL re: "syngenesophobia" and "I thought I was a mean older sister. Your sister wins the prize."

...yes, she still doesn't understand why I am still sometimes wary of her. ;-)

Spiders and whales?? Somehow, Soferdig, I'm missing the connection there! LOL If spiders are so intelligent ( and I'm not saying that they aren't, mind you) , why would one hide in my pajamas? EEEWWWW!

Pixy, just be glad you're not finding a whale hiding in your pajamas!

LOL!

now that is one heckuva picture!

Whales are everybodys favorite critter to save where as spiders are not, so if they were like whales they would be protected by all who save the whales. And the Barney thing is that Barney is a dinasaur who eats people and he is loved by all in our world. Spiders are friendly innocuous beings who only have a human perception of denzions of the deep. When actually they are our best garden friends who love to live in our pJs.

This message was edited Sep 18, 2006 9:56 PM

This message was edited Sep 18, 2006 11:16 PM

I think you are thinking of Barney. Elmo is a little red monster on Sesame Street.

This message was edited Sep 19, 2006 9:48 AM

Soferdig, I just don't think you've got a chance on this one so I suggest you retire gracefully.

I guess most of us ladies don't have a phobia about whales because we know how to avoid them with 100% reliability. When whales start sneaking about in the garden or dropping from the kitchen ceiling we'll probably start having irrational fears about them, too. :-)

You have never paddled in the ocean full of breaching humpbacks. You have never passed a herd of grey whales that blink at you from 8' away in an ocean that is trying to throw you to your death with 30' waves. You have never sat and watched the expectant mother look at her 1000 children emerging from her web that is placed in the most expectant food bank for spiders. She is proud and waiting for them to grow up and become aphid eaters like she is. She has smiled at me and thanked me for a world she can revel in.

whoa! Re: "Elmo as dinosaur": don't tell the children! Do we love him when he eats us up?
I think I'd better go back outside & check for whales.....

Well we love Barney what is the difference except a person who doesn't know the difference

No Soferdig I've never been that close to whales, but I'm sure it's an amazing experience.

I'm your basic "never wants to feel an adrenaline rush" kind of person. Never had an injury worse than a badly skinned knee, and never wanted to be anywhere it was likely to happen. My garden is as close to "nature in the wild" as I care to get. :-)

In my life, I hope I am that close to whales! I think I could die happy. Out on the boat, I'm always on the lookout. I am on record as someone who is NOT a spider hater. I especially love the orb weavers, the garden spiders who burst forth thousands of offspring each year. I have been known to take them around the garden and distribute them. Barney, however, I cannot stand. Never liked barney, and didn't really cotton to Sesame street either. My daughter liked sesame street, but my son hated it. No explanation there.
But I do get your point about people wanting to save the 'warm and fuzzy' animals, and missing entirely the contributions that our exo-skeletal friends make to the larger ecosystem. So true, and so sadly short sighted.

It's hard to explain my feelings about the big house spiders. I'm not really scared at all of them, but I just do not LIKE them in my house. It's a very gut reaction, a deep shudder that makes me feel quite 'girly', a feeling I do not relate to easily. (Never was one of those squeamish squealers). Must be something primitive in my genetic memory. I would like to say that I can catch them and put them outside, and I possibly could do that if I didn't have to look at them to do it, or get near to them. I let all the other spiders live in the house with impunity. I figure if they are living here, then they must be finding things to eat. They are just part of the decor (not that my house is overrun with spiders). I don't bother them, and they don't bother me. I don't worry about them drinking my spit at night.

I want to be on your side on this one, soferdig. I really do. If only my intellect could overcome millions of years of evolution!! LOL!!!



As an interesting aside to this, I find that as I get older, I have no desire to be around snakes. Now, I used to be a kid who hunted snakes. I loved them, wanted to bring them home. I was never afraid of them, even poisonous ones. I grew up tromping around the woods all over the eastern and southern U.S. where you have to be wary of poisonous snakes. Into adulthood I continued to be fascinated by them and thought they were beautiful.

When my son was young, we took him to see the 'reptile man', a guy who owns a reptile zoo in northern Washington and travels around doing educational presentations to schools,etc. We've seen him several times. At this particular show, he had a cottonmouth on display. He had 'milked' the snake of its venom and was showing off the snake's fangs for all the kids to see. I was on the front row. To show how fast the snake could strike, he held a balloon up in front of the snake and wagged it around. The snake struck the balloon so fast you couldn't even see it. I have seen many, many cottonmouths in my life and have never given it a thought. But somehow, after that event, I never wanted to see another one and I'm not really interested in other snakes, either. It's very strange. It's almost at though that visual image of that snake striking woke some kind of knowlege in me of which I had somehow been unaware. And now, I have no desire to see them anymore and have lost my fascination with them. It's too bad, really. I'm not afraid of them, I just don't like them anymore. And that's kind of how I feel about the big spider. Not afraid, but I don't like them. (try as I might, I can't seem to morph the big hairy spider into a cute little friend!) But for you, I will try! Because I know you are 100% right. But no promises!

I understand the gut response cause I have had it too. But in my profession I (who had snake phobias) had to overcome them by spending time with them to understand my fears. They gradually diminished and now I can handle and caress the little ones where I actually can function as an objective observer. I had a 12' python as I opened the box it was in strike my forehead instantly and wrap around me as I fell to the ground. My staff left the room in a panic an it left me to my own devices. Yes I was instantly terrified but gained control and was able to grasp the snake by the head and unwrap it without any help. But you are right my innate fear rose to the surface initially.

That 'fight or flight' reptilian (sorry for the pun) brain response: it's a good thing to have in general!
Gee! I hope your staff felt a little bit chagrined at having abandoned you in your time of need! LOL!! That's a big snake!

Sorry, MzWeazelle. Didn't mean to get totally off topic. I tend to do that late at night.

Oops Sorry MzWeazelle. Spiders are my friends. I'll shut up now.

Sticking to the topic is not an issue in my book folks. I just threw something out there as a conversation starter. Ramble on!!!

Soferdig you can have as many friends, with what ever number of legs or fins or scales, as you like. Just don't bring them to tea at my place. lol

That's quite a snake story. I agree with Pixy -- I hope your staff were thoughtful enough to be embarrassed.

Snakes, spiders, and just in time for Halloween, BATS. Now, I know how beneficial these creatures are and I want them in my garden eating bugs but I'm really not fond of bats in my house.

I intend to encourage bats around our property, but I'll give them a house of their own thank-you very much. :-) Fortunately I don't have an attic for them to hang out in.

I LOVE the bats! Every year my husband and I sit outside in the evening waiting for the bats to return. I built them a big bat house last year, using information specifically for the bats we have up here. I know we have bats that live in the tall trees around here, but no one came to roost in my bat house. I was sad. In know it takes sometimes a few years for them to 'find' a bat house, but I think maybe mine is simply not far enough up in the tree.

A few years back we traveled to Australia and were driving through a town just north of Sydney at dusk. Out of one of the parks came an entire colony of huge bats! They were flying foxes! I've never seen such huge bats in my life! They were over two feet across. I was thrilled and almost wrecked the car. Then, at dinner in Sydney, we saw a very large group of them circling a certain area where there were lots of bright lights. At first we didn't know what they were because they were so large they looked like a flock of birds. But it was night time so that didn't make sense. The waitress told us they were seagulls, but she lied. More flying foxes! They were entirely cool!

Here's a link to a website for your educational convenience:
http://sres-associated.anu.edu.au/batatlas/at_foxes.html

I can't say that I really like bats, but I've never had one fly up my sleeve or land on my head so I don't have a major aversion to them. We have a large insect population around here and I'm hoping to cut it down by enticing a few bats to live in our area.

I know it can take a while to attract them. Pixy, how high up do they recommend the bat house be?

Just when I have time to visit, the talk turns to bats! And I have such a good spider story! So, even though bats are one of my favorite animals, back to spiders:

One night last fall, My son (19) woke me up at 4:30in the morning because a spider had crawled into his ear! He could feel it "burrowing around in there", so going back to sleep and waiting for it to crawl out was not an option. Luckily, he doesn't dislike spiders, and is used to me laughing at him [Wink] , so he didn't freak. We tried a dropperful of water, but I didn't want to drown it and end up with a dead spider in his ear.

We ended up going to the ER. I am friends with a couple of our local emergency doctors, and was disappointed that neither was on duty, but what we got was even better - this Dr is afraid of spiders!!
It was hysterical watching him try not to get too close, in case the creature leapt out and scurried into his own ear. He dripped in some lidocaine to kill it and had the nurse flush it out. Neither of them could see it in there, but after several syringes of water, out it came, and it wasn't small.

My son posted some photos on a forum he frequents, and one response was from a guy who had a cockroach in his ear for as long as a year! With photos of the dead, wax-encrusted bug. ICK!

Oh boy, that's it! I'm going to have nightmares for sure tonight.

Back to bats -
They are so cool. We found one in our garage once, with an injured wing. We put him in a little cage to transport to wildlife rehab, and he crawled out through a hole that I swear was no bigger than one of his feet.

The fruit bats are my favorite animal at the zoo - here is a great photo (no, I can't take credit, someone emailed it to me - I don't know where they got it)

Thank-you very much. I was just beginning to think I could live with spiders in the garden!

ARRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/springfield/bat_houses.html

Here ya go!

Interesting spider story, and how wierd!! I take it the spider was a harmless one that was just looking for a cozy home. But I draw the line at that other creature that was in someone's ear. I have a certifiable phobia of the things and I'm not kidding. I would have to desert the thread quickly or suffer hideous nightmares and daymares if I had to read stories about them. Shudder!!!!

Thanks for the bat house link Pixy. I'll keep it handy when we finally get around to putting one up.

karlabb, I thought spiders in the ear were urban legands. eeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhh and yoou say it was big?eeeeeeeehhhhhhh.

Where do you thinik dreams come from. The whispers of spiders, not what Freud babbled about.

Ummm ... I don't know much about Freudian babble, but if spiders are whispering in my ears at night then I finally know where my nightmares are coming from. lol

I hope you're all happy: it's cold and wet so I brought in the first load of firewood today. Now when my husband gets home, if he says "Hold real still...." while reaching for my shoulder, or worse still, my neck, then I'm jumping ship from spider-friendly to full bore arachnophobia. So far, so good. And no whales were seen in the wood either LOL!

thank goodness for that! Although, my yard is wet enough right now to support sea life.

and if you had to catch a bus today, your ears might support sea life as well!